Species I Can Do Without

This week’s long-winded Friday Five is mine: In the depths of a dream, a voice speaks unto you: Little one! Little one! You’re not sure who it is, but it doesn’t occur to you to ask. so you just listen. Listen, I haven’t been to earth in a long time, but I have some good data here that suggests unless five species are made extinct, the whole planet will simply shut down within a week. I haven’t visited in a long time, and you humans seem the closest thing to sentients on Earth. I need your help. Doesn’t matter which …

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Festivals, Departments, And Academic Separatism

I walked about the campus this afternoon after my last work-hour, which was a shift in the English cafe. Of course, it’s festival time on campus so all the students were out eating roast pork and drinking booze; that means the English Cafe was almost empty, and I ended up just drinking a tea and watching the last half of the movie of the day, which was Resident Evil. Afterward, wandering among the stalls the different student clubs and department groups had put up, I noticed that the vast majority of them were selling the same thing. It seemed to …

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JazzFest Disappointment

I kid you not, I remember the days when people like Joe Lovano, Steve Lacy, John Scofield, Courtney Pine, and their ilk used to play the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival. I don’t know if the funding was cut, or the attendance died out, but this year’s schedule seems a little disappointing, considering what I remember. I was hoping for at least one big name show, something American perhaps. I mean, a big show by someone who colors a little outside the lines, that is. Wait, there’s Dave Holland. He’s alright. But Arturo Sandoval? Bonobo? And don’t even get me started about …

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